GlaxoSmithKline announces fourth-quarter and full-year results
GlaxoSmithKline (London, UK) has announced an operating profit of
GlaxoSmithKline (London, UK) has announced an operating profit of £6.8bn for 2005, marking a 16% rise on the £5.8bn achieved in 2004. Operating profit for the fourth-quarter rose 20%, from £1.2bn to £1.6bn.
Turnover totalled £21.7bn, a 7% rise on 2004's £20.0bn; £18.7bn of which came from GSK Pharmaceuticals, with the remaining £3.0bn from GSK Consumer Healthcare. Turnover for the quarter hit £5.9bn, rising 10% on 2004's £5.2bn, with £5.1bn coming from Pharmaceuticals and £800m from Consumer Healthcare.
The company's strongest pharmaceutical performer was asthma treatment Seretide/Advair, which earned £3.0bn over the course of the year and £850m in the fourth-quarter; increases of 22% and 23% on their equivalent periods last year, respectively.
Other notable products were diabetes treatment Avandia, which increased on its full-year 2004 performance by 27%, earning £1.2bn, and two new products, Requip - a treatment for restless legs syndrome - and Avodart - a treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia - which earned £156m and £129m for the year, respectively.
Consumer Healthcare reined in £1.4bn of its full-year earnings and £400m of its fourth-quarter earnings through over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, which in general experienced little growth. The sector's biggest growth (in percentage terms) came in nutritional healthcare, which rose 7% for the year and 11% for the quarter, reaching £619m and £154m respectively.
Spending on r&d rose 8% to £3.1bn for the year and 11% to £968m for the quarter. The company is expecting seven new product approvals/launches in 2006, including Rotarix, an oral vaccine for the prevention of rotavirus gastroenteritis. It has already launched Arranon for leukaemia and Avandaryl for diabetes this year.
Its late-stage pipeline looks relatively strong, with Cervarix, a vaccine for cervical cancer, likely to be filed for regulatory approval in the EU in March and the US by the end of the year. It also has treatments for epilepsy (Lamictal XR), allergic rhinitis (Allermist) and breast cancer (Tykerb) nearing a position for filing. A pandemic influenza vaccine is also expected to complete EU filing in 2006.
The company, which is reported to be in talks to buy Serono, (the Swiss biotech company recently failed to attract a buyer for £9.0bn at auction), reported an equity rise of £1.6bn to £7.6bn for the year. It has predicted an earnings per share growth of 10% for 2006.